03x01 - Paul Bunyan

[bunniefuu]

♪ Reading rainbow ♪

♪ Butterfly in the sky ♪

♪ I can go twice as high ♪

♪ Take a look ♪

♪ It's in a book ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ I can go anywhere ♪

♪ Friends to know ♪

♪ And ways to grow ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ I can be anything ♪

♪ Take a look ♪

♪ It's in a book ♪

♪ A reading rainbow ♪

♪ Reading rainbow ♪

Timber!

Hi.

You'd better put on
something warm

Because we're going to maine
to celebrate trees.

And don't forget
your hard hat.

When you're where trees
are being harvested,

There's always a chance
of branches falling.

Lumbering, or logging,
is the business of
harvesting trees.

Like a farmer harvests crops,
loggers harvest trees.

They've got to select

The right trees
to cut down,

Just enough
so a new forest can grow.

Many things started out
as a tree--

Furniture, the floors
in my house, my house,

Logs for the fireplace,
musical instruments.

Trees also provide
homes and food for animals

And paper--

Paper that goes into books
like this one.

See you later.

Thanks.

Long ago, our country
was like one big forest.

Before roads and towns
were built,

Trees had to be cleared.

Well, many stories came out
of those tree-clearing days

Called american tall tales.

Over the years,

One storyteller after another
keeps exaggerating the facts

Until you have an authentic
american tall tale.

One of the tallest
of tall tales

Is the story of paul bunyan,
the legendary logger.

Paul bunyan was the largest,

Smartest, and strongest baby

Ever born in
the state of maine.

Even before
he learned to talk,

Paul showed an interest
in the family logging business.

He took the lumber wagon

And wandered
through the neighborhood

Collecting trees.

My tree!

He grew into a sturdy lad

Who wrestled
with a grizzly.

One morning,

Paul awoke to find the world
covered with blue snow.

He heard a moan
from inside a snowdrift,

And there he found
a shivering ox calf.

Paul adopted him
and named him babe.

Both paul and babe
began growing

At an astonishing rate.

But the ox never lost
the color of the snow

From which he'd been rescued.

At 17, paul felt an urge
to move on.

He said good-bye to his parents
and headed west.

Paul wanted
to cross the country

With the best
lumbering crew available.

He signed legendary lumbermen
big tim burr, hardjaw murphy,

And the seven
hackett brothers.

As he cleared the land,

Pioneers moved in
to set up farms and villages.

On the far slopes
of the appalachian mountains,

Several of paul's men
were ambushed

By a g*ng
of underground ogres

Called gumberoos.

Paul grabbed the dinner horn.

[Horn blows]

He blew a thunderous note
into the gumberoos' cave,

Determined to blast
the meanness out of them.

To paul's dismay,

The gumberoos responded
by snatching

The entire crew.

A wild "umpus
began inside the den.

When that historic tussle
was over,

The gumberoos needed six weeks
to untangle themselves.

Th.
Paul's next job was to clear

He hired armies
of extra woodsmen

And built
enormous new bunkhouses.

The men sailed up to bed
in balloons

And parachuted down
to breakfast in the morning.

Unfortunately, the cooks
couldn't flip flapjacks

Fast enough to satisfy
all the newcomers.

To solve the muddle,

Paul built
a colossal flapjack griddle.

The surface was greased
by kitchen helpers

With slabs of bacon
laced to their feet.

Every time the hot griddle
was flooded with batter,

It blasted
a delicious flapjack

High above the clouds.

Usually, the flapjacks landed
neatly beside the griddle,

T sometimes they were
a bit off target.

Fueled by flapjacks
and syrup,

The men leveled
the great plains

And shaved the slopes
of the rocky mountains.

Suddenly, a big blizzard buried
the entire mountain range.

Now, that blizzard continued
for several years,

Snuffing out springs, summers,
and autumns.

Babe became so depressed
that paul asked ole,

A celebrated blacksmith,

To make a pair of sunglasses
for his friend.

When babe saw the world
colored green,

He thought he'd stumbled
into a field of clover.

He began eating the snow
with gusto.

Soon all those pent-up
springtimes simply exploded.

Yay!
Let's go!

Paul and his friends invited
some newly arrived settlers

To help them celebrate

All the holidays
that had been missed.

All right!

After the festival,

The@lumberjacks
continued their journey.

But as they headed southwest,

The blistering sun
and the giant texas varmints

Proved to be more of a problem
than they had expected.

While crossing arizo,

The griddle curled up
like a b*rned leaf

And the batter evaporated.

Deprived of their flapjacks,

The lumbermen became
weak and discouraged.

Paul's great a*
fell from his shoulder,

Gouging a jagged trench

Which today is known
as the grand canyon.

Disaster seemed certain

Until paul found a family

That could sell him
a barn filled with corn.

When the flaming sunrise
hit the barn, it exploded.

The lumbermen awoke
to nd themselves

In a raging blizzard
of popcorn.

Dizzy with joy,
they pulled on their mittens

And began
blasting each other

With popcorn balls.

A westerly wind kept
the cooling clouds of popcorn

Swirling about paul
and his crew

Until they reached
the pacific ocean.

After he crossed the country,

Some say that paul gave up
lumbering and rambled north,

Searching for new areas
of untouched wilderness.

Sometimes his great bursts
of laughter--

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Can be heard rumbling
like distant thunder

Across the wild
alaskan mountain ranges

Where he and babe
still roam.

Lumbering is hard work,

Yet it seemed like a snap
for paul bunyan.

Then again,
paul bunyan was so big--

How big was he?

He was so big
that when he fell,

He fell out of state.

Ha ha ha ha!

How would you like to be
big and tall like paul bunyan?

What would you do?

If it was true,
I'd pick up a dinosaur.

Touch the sky.

I wouldn't have to
swim across rivers.

I'd just step over.

Eat a watermelon
like an apple.

I'd like to
hit a baseball

All the way
around the world.

I would catch airplanes.

I'd go and buy
big, big, big shoes.

Read a big, big,
giant book.

I would eat


This peaceful and beautiful
part of the forest

Is living proof
of nature's life-renewing cycle.

You know,

I can almost
hear things growing.

Here, look at this soil.

There are leaves and twigs,
pieces of bark,

All parts of a tree.

Now all these tree parts
are going back into the earth

To provide
rich organic soil

Which nourishes new trees.

This tree stump here

Is the remains
of a tree

Harvested almost


It's spongy and soft.

It just crumbles into soil.

Here's a cone.

It's full of seeds,

And each seed
has a sail on it

So the wind
can carry it

To another place.

It's amazing.

And here,

This is the next generation
of trees.

The whole idea
behind conservation

Is to harvest
the big trees

So little trees
have room to grow.

That way,
the forest never dies.

But there is one thing

That can singlehandedly
wipe out an entire forest

And all the life in it.

Forest fires can turn
beautiful woods like these...

Into a devastated landscape

Like this.

It will take
over 30 years

For this forest
to grow back,

All because of
one little match,

One of the products
made from trees.

But there are people who are
fighting to save our forests

From the ravages of fire.

In maine,
the forest service has drills

For its forest rangers.

[Helicopter whirs]


Do you read me?


The ranger team

Down in the field.

[Garbled radio communication]

When a fire is spotted,

Rangers rush to the scene
to start putting it out.

The team wears
bright yellow uniforms

Made of
fire-resistant cloth.

Once they arrive,
there's no time to waste.

Pick up your tools
and head up here.

We have
a 10-acre fire

Burning
in mixed growth.

The fire's
on the ridge side.

We want to put
a hand line

As close to
the fire as possible

To stop its spread.

Put it in
a foot wide.

Directed by the crew chief,

They dig a trench
called a fire line.

This helps keep the fire
from spreading.

When you're facing
a forest fire,

It's your life and the forest
against the flames.

We're working
around the fire.

Here, too.

A good job, boys.

Don't go
quite that deep.

Just below
the root systems,

Then we'll move
faster.

Radio communication
is important

So the crew chief
can control the action.

At exactly
the right moment,

He calls in air support.



Can you make
two water drops

On the right
flank?

Each helicopter
carries a huge bucket

Holding 250 gallons
of water.

They release the water
over the fire

Like a very, very
heavy rainfall.

The helicopters speed
to the nearest lake or river,

Fill up,
and start all over again.

It's like a@bucket brigade
in the air.

Back on the ground,
water trucks use nearby roads

To get close to the fire
and finish the job.

In training exercises
like this,

The ranger firefighting team

Gets a chance
to practice their skills.

But the best way
to stop fires

Is to keep them
from happening.

Only you
can prevent
forest fires.

Thanks, smokey.

Paul bunyan would be proud
of these forest rangers,

And that's no tall tale.

If you like
reading tall tales,

They're at
your local library.

They're not always listed
under american tall tales.

Sometimes they're called
folk tales or folk stories.

Reading tall tales
is a great way

To sharpen your thinking
and expand your imagination.

Talking about imagination,
watch this.

♪ Paul bunyan was a logger ♪

♪ And a big man was he ♪

♪ With one swing of his a* ♪

♪ He could chop down a@tree ♪

♪ Paul and his blue ox ♪

♪ Chopped so many one day ♪

♪ They had to dig puget sound ♪

♪ Just to haul them away ♪♪

♪ Let me sing to you
the tale of john henry ♪

♪ Makin' tunnels
for the railroad ♪

♪ With his wife polly ann
by his side ♪

♪ He could hammer right through
a mountainside ♪

♪ With the strength of 50 men,
I am told ♪♪

♪ In the early days,
he traveled this land ♪

♪ In a burlap shirt
and on his head a tin pan ♪

♪ He planted apple trees
wherever he'd go ♪

♪ 'Cause he could really
make things grow ♪

♪ You know, it takes quite a man
to do such a deed ♪

♪ And they called him
johnny appleseed ♪♪

This is a nursery
for baby trees.

Each one of these
started as a seed.

This is what they look like
at 4 months old.

We're putting these seedlings

Into their new home.

First you dig a hole.

Put the new tree
into the ground.

Tuck some rich soil
under its chin like that.

This little seedling
feels right at home.

There are millions of them,

All planted
by the forest service.

When they're


They'll be planted
in harvested areas.

That way,
future generations can enjoy

All the things
that trees give us,

Like books.

If you enjoyed
paul bunyan,

Here are some other books
you might enjoy.

If you like
indian legends,

You'll like
this book.

It's called
the legend of
the bluebonnet

By tomie depaola.

It's about a little girl
o loved her family.

Her family d*ed
because there was no food.

It hadn't rained
for many days.

All she had left

Was a warrior doll
from her mother.

She had to throw
her doll into the fire

To end the famine
and save her people.

I think this book

Is lots of fun
reading.

It's in
your library.

[Speaking tuscarora]

Hello.
I'm jeremy prinop.

That's tuscarora,
my tribe's language.

I just read a book,

Whale in the sky
by anne siberell.

It's about another tribe
in the northwest united states.

They have an interesting way
of telling stories.

They do it
with totem poles.

A totem pole
is a carved tree.

This story is about
a thunderbird

That watches over
the animals and people

Near the river.

The pictures in this book
are a little different.

They're woodcuts.

You should read this book

Because it tells
a native american tale

In a new
and interesting way.

[Speaking tuscarora]

♪ Oh, say can you see ♪

♪ By the dawn's early light ♪

Have you heard this song
at the beginning

Of a baseball, football,
or soccer game?

It's our national anthem,
the star-spangled@banner.

The book,
the star-spangled banner,

Is about
our national anthem.

The pictures
tell the story.

The book has
two verses of the song.

The map inside the book

Shows where
the star-spangled banner

Was written
by francis scott key.

I suggest that you
pick up this book and read it.

If you're waiting to hear

The end of our national anthem,
here we go.

♪ O'er the land
of the free ♪

♪ And the home
of the brave ♪♪

Yay!

Years ago, loggers spent
a lot of time

At the logging camps
away from their families.

It got pretty boring
once the work was through,

So they had contests.

Forestry students here at
the university of maine at orono

Are carrying on
that tradition.

What's this event
called?

This is
the scoot-loading event.

Coming down
is the log.

The object's
to load the log
onto the scoot

As fast
as you can.

The logs can weigh


It's important to work
with your partners

So that the log
does not fall
off the scoot.

Are you ready?



All right!
Come on!

Come on!
Let's go!

Let's go!
Pick it up!

All right!
Whoa!

Woo!

Come on!
Woo! Yay!

This team is the winner
in 7.91 seconds.

Yay!

Woo!

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Logging isn't
all hard work.

It's hard play, too.

I can't think of a better place
to work or play

Than right here
in this beautiful forest.

Next time you play
with a wooden toy

Or sit in
a wooden chair

Or read a book,

Think how important
trees are to us.

We need to take care
of our trees.

Ready?

The first team to cut
six cookies wins.

Let's go.

See you next time.



Come on! Come on!

Go!

Come on! Saw!

Come on, guys!
Saw!

Just saw!

Come on, guys!
Saw!

Yay! Yay!

Today's reading rainbow books
are

Paulunyan, retold and
illustrated by steven kellogg,

Published by
william morrow & company.

The legend of bluebonnet
by tomie depaola,

Published by
g.p. Putnam's sons.

Whale in the sky
by anne siberell,

Published by
e.p. Dutton, incorporated.

The star-spangled banner
by peter spier,

Published by
doubleday & company.